To date, cardboard boxes have been used for packaging articles for transport. Cardboard boxes are effective for purposes such as absorbing shocks to and preventing soiling of packaged articles, etc., and are used in most distribution channels.
In order to effectively utilize earth's resources, recycling practices have become increasingly frequent in recent years. The four panels making up a lid section of a cardboard box fold in an interleaved manner for transport, allowing the cardboard box to be recycled. Also, once articles have been removed from a cardboard box, other articles may be repackaged in the cardboard box, again folding in an interleaved manner the four panels making up the lid section of the cardboard box for transport. U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,178 discloses a cardboard box folding device.
In the cardboard box folding device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,178, the cardboard box is carried to a predetermined location by a conveyor device, where a first small flap and a second large flap are driven simultaneously. The first small flap pushes a corner of one edge of one panel constituting the bottom of the cardboard box, the second large flap pushes a corner of one edge of another panel constituting the bottom of the cardboard box, and the other corners of the one panel and the other panel are suctioned by a plurality of vacuum suction devices to form an interleaved cardboard box.
Also, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application 11-278411 discloses a method for folding down a side flap of a paper container, whereby a side flap of a paper container spreading beyond a predetermined range can be folded down in the direction of transport, and a device therefor.
The device for folding down a side flap of a paper container disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application 11-278411 is provided with a conveyor arranged in a substantially horizontal fashion. The conveyor is furnished at predetermined intervals with support panels for supporting the paper containers. The paper container has at least at the top side thereof a flapped opening, and is fabricated in a three-dimensional form so as to open up the opening. The support panels support the paper containers with the opening of the paper container facing to one side. Posture correcting means is furnished midway along the direction of transport of the conveyor so that the posture correcting means may not interfere with the paper container during transport by the conveyor. The posture correcting means brings about displacement, towards an erection direction, of the side flap which is formed at the rear side in the direction of transport in the opening and has been extended (flattened) towards the outward direction from the opening. A tucker is furnished to the side of the conveyor. The side flap having undergone displacement towards the erection direction by the posture correcting means is turned to the direction of transport by the tucker so as to effect flattening towards the inside from the opening.
U.S. Patent Application 2010-0173765-A1 discloses a cardboard box assembly apparatus whereby a recyclable cardboard box can be assembled by a simple configuration, and with the cardboard box being assembled at low cost.
The cardboard box assembly apparatus disclosed in U.S. Patent Application 2010-0173765-A1 is adapted to fold over on one another the four panels constituting a lid section of the cardboard box, forming an interleaved lid. The cardboard box assembly apparatus includes a locking member and a fold-over member. By means of an elastic member, the locking member locks one edge of each of four panels constituting the lid section of the cardboard box. The fold-over member detrudes another edge of each of the four panels constituting the lid section of the cardboard box. In this cardboard box assembly apparatus, each of the four panels constituting the lid section of the cardboard box are held at a first edge thereof through elastic force of the elastic member of the locking member, while the another edges of each of the four panels constituting the lid section of the cardboard box continue to be fold over by the fold-over member. Where the elastic force of the elastic member of the locking member is exceeded, the first edges of each of the four panels constituting the lid section of the cardboard box are released.